The Vampire Who Cried Wolf
by rocketstar
Summary: Lena Valcourt never thought that coming back to Mystic Falls would unearth some of her biggest and darkest of secrets. She only came back because of a late night phone call from her best friend Damon Salvatore. Lena never dreamed she would come face to face with the one man she had been avoiding for the last 150 years... The mad, bad and dangerous to know Klaus.
1. Chapter 1

_Ring… Ring… Ring…_ The sound of her phone going off was the last thing that Evangeline Valcourt – or as she preferred Lena unless you wanted your ass kicked – wanted to hear right now, but the damn thing was so loud and incessant that it woke up Lena from her drunken slumber. Lena couldn't help but briefly wonder who on earth was calling her at this godforsaken time? It was late and Lena had no real interest in talking to anyone at this particular hour of the night. The only thing that Lena had planned for the foreseeable future was catching up on some much needed sleep. Ignoring the ringing phone, Lena immediately turned over in bed as she had no interest in answering her phone as right now as she was sleeping, which meant she was currently unavailable until she saw fit to get up out of bed, which wouldn't be for the next few hours. As far as Lena recalled it had been pretty late when she had went to bed and to her going to bed meant to things; sex or sleep and she generally didn't like to be disturbed when doing either. Unlike most vampires Lena actually slept in the small hours because she was a rare kind of vampire, one of few that were capable of walking in the daylight without being harmed so she spent her days outside doing whatever she please and her nights sleeping compared to most vampires who spent their time cooped up inside until night fell and they were allowed to go outside. As the phone continued to ring Lena pulled her pillow from under her and placed it on top of her head in an attempt to block out the incessant noise as eventually the phone would have to stop ringing. People who knew Lena, knew that she liked her sleep and being disturbed was not something she liked. Waking Lena up was like prodding a grizzly bear, it was just not something you did unless you had a death wish. So Lena was confused as to who would be stupid enough to be calling her at such an insane hour as she didn't hand out her number to just anyone, very few people had her phone number and those people were the people she trusted and naturally they knew better than to call her at such a bad time. Lena was content in ignoring her phone and letting it ring, however the occupant next to her bed wasn't having any of that and was persistently poking Lena to get her attention.

"Babe… Your phone won't stop ringing."

Kieron or Keith? Lena couldn't honestly remember his name, all she knew about the man laying next to her in bed was that she had met him in some dingy dive bar, he was very nice to look, shamelessly flirted with her and had brought her several drinks tonight but regardless of that Lena was going to hit him if he kept bothering her. Maybe even take a bit out of him to shut him up if he didn't stop.

"I-Ignore it, they'll get the message eventually or they'll die trying…" Lena tiredly murmured and moments later the phone stopped ringing to Lena's relief and she removed the pillow from over her head and placed it back in it's rightful place. However much to her displeasure the phone started ringing again and she couldn't help but snarl in annoyance as she just wanted to be left alone and allowed to sleep given how old she was. The old needed their sleep and despite her youthful appearance Lena was very old, she was over five hundred years old. But that didn't stop whoever was calling her at this moment, clearly whoever was calling her had a very severe death wish if they insisted on calling at this godforsaken hour.

"Phone's ringing…"

Realizing whoever was calling her wouldn't stop until they got their wish and spoke to her, Lena ever so reluctantly turned over in bed and leaned over Warren or William, whatever his name was and without opening her eyes she felt for her phone on the bedside table. Once she had found it, Lena placed it against her ear.

" _What do you want?_ " Lena snarled down the small compact piece of technology that was currently in her hand after accepting the call, she was not happy about being forced to get up and answer the phone and she was going to give them a piece of her mind over it. There was a familiar, arrogant and not to mention very cocky laugh at the end of the phone and Lena immediately groaned. She should have known that it was going to be _him_ as he was the only one stupid enough to call her whilst she was sleeping and know that he would probably get away with it with his life most likely still intact. Lena was going to ring his neck the next time she saw him because he of all people knew how much she appreciated her sleep given how much time they had spent with each other over the last century. Some days Lena Valcourt loved Damon Salvatore, some days she hated and there were times where she wished that she had never met him and right now was one of those moments.

"Leni, is that any way to greet your best friend?"

 _Leni._ Only two people in the entire world were allowed to call her than and one of them just happened to be her evil bastard of a best friend. Lena had never hated Damon Salvatore until now and was very much regretting being his friend as it seemed to bring her more trouble than good being associated with Damon. There had better be a good reason for him calling her in the middle of the night or rather the early hours of the morning because if Damon had just called because he was drunk and wanted to have a little chat that Lena was definitely going to snap his neck for a couple of hours next time she their paths crossed.

"Damon Salvatore you aren't my best friend, you're just a pain in the ass which I tolerate because you have a nice face to look at and you're awfully entertaining at times despite your hideous personality so you had better have a good reason for calling me at…" Lena began with a tired yawn as she looked over at her alarm clock and just seeing the time made her groan in dismay. "3:07 in the morning, Jesus Damon… Could you have not waited like three or four more hours to call? I would have been more than happy to have a pointless conversation with you then…"

"I need your help."

Lena scoffed, that was a good one. The charming and devilishly handsome Damon Salvatore needed her help? Did he think that she was stupid? Probably not as he knew to call her rather than bang on her front door at 3am. There was no way Damon needed her help, he just wanted something from her although she had no idea what it be except maybe scotch. Or it could be something more sinister, Damon could have pissed someone off and he needed her help to lay low for a while. Either one of them could be the case given Lena's past with Damon. But generally Damon didn't ask for help, it wasn't his style. "So why does that involve you waking me up at this godforsaken hour? You could have called me at more reasonable hour, you of all people know that I like my sleep."

"Fine you got me, I'm not calling about me. It's Stefan." Damon replied and Lena got a bad feeling in the pit her stomach as Damon mentioned his younger brother Stefan, as the Salvatore brothers didn't exactly get alone with each other. From what Lena knew, they hadn't seen each other in fifteen years and there was a good reason for that as half the time they fought like cats and dogs, coming close to killing each other on several occasions. Their estrangement went back to when the two of them had become vampires and over the years it hadn't eased up in the slightest. It was all over some stupid girl as these things tended to be. Lena had gone out of her way to avoid getting pulled into the vortex that was the Salvatore family drama. However, more often than not despite her best efforts Lena ended up getting sucked in and then spat out.

"Stefan? What's happened? Is he okay?" Lena demanded as she sat up in bed, no longer feeling drunk or tired at the mention of Damon's brother who was a good friend of hers, they had met through Damon and she was rather fond of the younger Salvatore as he was a sweetheart. A far cry from his devilish older brother, so If Stefan was in trouble then Lena wanted to know about it.

"You know same old stuff, he's in love and back in Mystic Falls and he's off the wagon again." Damon said in a rather cheerful yet irritated manner. Stefan was perhaps the kindest vampire Lena had ever met and it was hard to believe that he and Damon were related but his personality did not go well with the fact that he was a ripper and a pretty nasty work from what Lena had seen. Stefan had an infamous reputation as a ripper but what stopped him from being a cold hearted and ruthless ripper all the time was the guilt he carried with him over his actions. Stefan was the most compassionate person Lena knew, she wouldn't have believed that the sweet Stefan she knew was a ripper if she hadn't seen it for himself. Stefan's compassion and sense of goodness was his saving grace and downfall. It was what saved Stefan every time he started drinking human blood again. He struggled a lot with containing his thirst for human blood so much that Stefan tended to stick to animal blood, until he slipped and fell off the wagon. It had been a while since Stefan had fallen off the wagon but Lena didn't understand why Damon was calling her of all people about this.

"Okay, I now understand the 3am phone call… But why are you calling me? Lexi is the only who usually takes care of Stefan when he gets like this although why Lexi should, is beyond me given that Stefan is your baby brother." Lena questioned before the realization sunk in, Lexi was an acquaintance of hers through Stefan and Lexi hated Damon with a burning passion. It probably explained why Damon was calling her about it. "So you need me to call Lexi? That's why you've called, of course…"

"Lexi's dead. I killed her on Stefan's birthday, did I forget to tell you that that last time I called?" Damon stated in such a casual manner and Lena was pretty sure she could hear some amusement in his voice, like he was actually proud of himself. Lena would have hung up there and then if it wasn't for the fact that Stefan was in trouble. Sometimes Lena couldn't believe the stuff that Damon did and the fact that he had no sense of remorse about it all. Maybe he had flipped the switch again, turned off emotions for a while whilst he went on a bender but he probably wouldn't have called Lena if that was the case. It was never easy with Damon, always so damn complicated and times like these made Lena wonder why the two of them were friends at all.

"I'm pretty sure I would have remembered you telling me something of that magnitude and I'm surprised that your still alive after doing something that heinous to your brother. I can't believe that Stefan let you live after that because I know I wouldn't have but then again I don't have to deal with you as my brother as my one has been dead for five hundred years now… But back to my original point, what do you want from me? If you don't need me to call your brother's dead best friend who is dead dead this time thanks to you, then what's with the 3am call…"

"I need you to come to Mystic Falls and help me take care of Stefan–" Damon began and as soon as the words came out of his mouth, Lena was so tempted to put the phone down if she wasn't certain that Damon would just keep calling her out.

"Hell no!" Lena immediately blurted out, she wasn't sure whether or not she should be surprised that Damon had the nerve to ask her to come to his hometown. Probably not as Damon was one of the most ballsy people that Lena knew, with his view on life being that the only bad ideas in life are the ones that are never tried. That had gotten the two of them into trouble more times then Lena wanted to remember. It was part of the reason why Lena loved Damon but after all time he should have known better, Damon should have known even before asking that she would say no to this. "You know I love Stefan to pieces and I would do anything for him, I really would after the things he has done for me over the years but I can't do this. This is the one thing I cannot do Damon, I don't do small towns as they are too quiet not to mention there's nothing to do in them especially Mystic Falls. Vampires and that town of yours don't go well, I don't do well in them or do you not remember what happened last time? We both agreed that we would never go back there after what happened back in 94!"

"Leni, Leni, Leni… You're going to want to come back to Mystic Falls, believe me. Not only will you be helping Stefan get back on the wagon but you'll get to see me again and it's been a while since we last saw each other and don't tell me you haven't missed me." Damon said, clearly attempting to turn on the charm in an attempt to convince the very stubborn French woman to do something, which she was adamant about not doing.

"Now I know I'm right in turning you down, I always knew that there was something seriously wrong with you Damon but I never knew you had actually lost your damn mind!" Lena quipped in amusement; she was no longer tired and she had to admit that she was rather enjoying herself. It strange that one phone call from Damon could make Lena feel more alive than she had in weeks. It reminded Lena that her and Damon should really talk more often, the two of them used to have such fun in the good old days. Not all of it was so bad, most of it really good although there had been some very close calls over the years, mostly due to Damon having this bothersome knack of pissing off most people he came across.

"Leni, would I ever steer you wrong?" Damon questioned and Lena couldn't help but snicker down the phone. That was another good question, in all her five hundred and thirty nine years as a vampire Lena had never gotten in as much trouble until she had met Damon. Well there had been someone else before Damon but he didn't get Lena into trouble, he was just trouble himself. Lena wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not about the whole trouble thing with Damon. It did however make eternal damnation quite interesting.

"Certainly or does Paris 1975 ring a bell or Miami in 2001 sound familiar in the slightest? Those are just the ones I can recall off the top of my head from our most recent escapades. If I'm being honest so early in the morning, then I would have to say to you Damon, I couldn't trust you as far as I could throw you." Lena admitted with a small giggle.

"C'mon Leni it's not like you've got anything better to do…"

Lena looked over to where Kieron or Keith was sleeping, for once Damon did have a point. She really didn't have anything better to do at the moment other than killing the human which she no longer did and now she was intrigued about why Damon said she'd want to come back to Mystic Falls there had to be a reason behind that comment, so she'd entertain him and come to Mystic Falls until she got bored and decided to move on.

"Fine… I'm leaving now."

"You bringing the champagne?"

"Why ask stupid questions? I'm French so of course I'm bringing champagne! I raised on the finest things on life and I have not stopped in my ways since becoming a vampire as you very well know Mr. Salvatore." Lena said insulted that Damon would ever think such a matter although she did stop in her step as she climbed out of bed. "You do have scotch, right?"

"Leni of course I have scotch, this is me we're talking about." Damon retorted in a shocked manner and Lena had to admit that he had a point. The only thing Damon could ever be relied on for was his willingness to kill and always having scotch.

"À bientôt!" Lena quipped before ending the call and chucking her phone back on the bed before looking around the room. First thing first; find the champagne, then pack all whilst deciding whether or not to use the human as a quick snack before she left. Sounded easy enough but then again as Lena had to remind herself, she was going back to Mystic Falls and that apparent small and mundane quiet little town in Virginia wasn't always quite what it seemed. Lena was going to have to pack for every possible scenario given that she was dealing with a small town with quite the bloody history not to mention the Salvatore brothers.


	2. Chapter 2

If there was anything that Lena had sworn by in her hundreds of years as a vampire, it was never to make any promises as even she never knew what could happen. Life was unpredictable at time without adding in the eternal damnation thing. However, she had made a promise over a decade ago and that promise had been never to return to Mystic Falls after she had witnessed an unspeakable horror at the family home of her so-called best friend. After what happened that day back in 1994, Lena had swore to never return and yet here she was, back in the town that she had promised never to return to, at the urging of her best friend. As she stood outside the Salvatore boarding house, Lena couldn't believe that she was actually back here in Mystic Falls. In the decades that she had know the delightful and yet dangerous Damon Salvatore, Lena had visited his family home a few times and with each time, something bad had happened that had always warned Lena against ever coming back again and this time was no different. There was this sinking feeling in the pit of Lena's stomach, and all she wanted to do was turn around and go back to the safety of her own apartment. There was too much history that she shared with this town, too much blood had been shed for Lena to ever feel comfortable in a town that had a rather long history with vampires as well a witches. Even though Lena didn't have as much of a history with Mystic Falls as Damon or Stefan, it still didn't quell the sinking feeling she had in the pit of her stomach. Lena was well aware that bad things tended to happen in Mystic Falls, especially when you added the Salvatore brothers into the mix, which made her even more certain that she shouldn't been here. Even though Damon had called, somewhat begrudgingly asking for her help, Lena was certain that this was the last place on earth that she should be. Did a call for help from her best friend with the promise of alcohol convince Lena that small towns weren't so bad? No. But it would help if Lena spent most of her time drunk, that it would make everything bearable. As she reminded herself that she wasn't here for her, she was here to help Stefan and get him back on the wagon so taking a deep breath Lena walked into the boarding house, crossing the threshold with no problems into the house which looked like it hadn't changed much in the last fifty years when Lena last came to visit. The boarding house reminded Lena of one of those stately homes that never changed, it was sort of like a live in museum but it still had this odd yet quaintly homely feel to it. The house seemed to be the last place where someone like Damon Salvatore would live but this was home for him, Lena knew that both Damon and Stefan were born and raised here in Mystic Falls although their ancestral home and had fallen during the war. But the family had rebuilt on a new part of town and that had become this very boarding house. Putting her bags down in the foyer Lena walked into the living room and she found her best friend Damon Salvatore looking as devastatingly handsome as ever with his dark often wild dark hair and those pale blue eyes that managed to convince Lena do things that she would later regret. Upon the sight of Damon, Lena couldn't help but laugh as he was sitting and drinking a glass of scotch which is pretty much exact same way Lena had left him the last time she had seen him. It was nice to know that something's would never change.

"Hello trouble, it's nice to see a welcome face despite all the trouble that your early phone call has caused me." Lena greeted with a warm smile and she couldn't help but notice that Damon had been caught off by her appearance that he had had smiled, he hadn't had time to react in some aloof manner and give her some smirk. No, this had been a genuine smile and just seeing him made Lena feel all warm inside. She hadn't realized how much she had missed Damon until she had caught sight of him. Lena had few friends, well few that she trusted and could rely on and Damon was one of them. Despite how annoying and troublesome he could be at times, Lena knew that she could always depend on him. The two of them were no saints and they made no apologies for that, together they had been through several rough patches together and Lena knew she could never shake Damon off even if she wanted to.

"For a moment there I was starting to doubt that you were coming Leni." Damon replied in more casual manner as he brushed off his surprise, making his way over to Lena and greeting her with a peck on the cheek and a small wink. Already for Lena it felt like no time hadn't ever passed between the two of them and they were falling back into their old ways.

"Oh, trust me I was tempted not to turn up! Especially after that rude awakening of yours Damon, but me not showing up mean leaving Stefan in your care and I couldn't let that happen. I may be a bitch at times but even I couldn't do something like that to your poor baby brother. I got held up for a little while, I had some dead weight that I had to get rid of if you know what I mean." Lena quipped with a small smile, making a small joke to her former companion who would never again interrupt her when she slept.

"I see you brought the good stuff." Damon stated motioning to the bottle of champagne in Lena's hand and she couldn't help but smirk as the only thing her and Damon seemed to like doing was drinking. The two of them were as bad as each other and probably had some kind of drinking problem. They were pretty much functioning alcoholics although Lena had to admit that Damon was the worse of the two of them but since they were dead what did it really matter? It wasn't like all the drinking was going to kill them since they were already dead. Why not indulge in all manners of hedonism if they were immortal and had nothing to lose?

"Naturally but I'm afraid that this isn't for now, we're saving this for later so until then where's the rest of your family? I've been looking forward to meeting the rest of the Salvatore clan so bring on this nephew or a cousin that you've been hiding from me. I want to meet this last living relative of yours and offer him my condolences for being related to you before he meets his untimely demise like the rest of your family." Lena asked as she looked around but there was no sign of anyone, the boarding house was pretty quiet. Perhaps even quite dead if you wanted to go down that road.

"Killed him."

Lena's eyebrow cocked up in amusement, she honestly wasn't that surprised to say the least as the Salvatore brothers did have a history of kill their relative.. They seemed to have this thing about trying to kill each other and it wasn't just the vampire relatives, the human ones were quite bad as well. "You're still killing your relatives? I thought we had talked about that and speaking of killing people we are going to talk about this Lexi thing! Of all the things you've done Damon, killing your brother's best friend on said brother's birthday may just be the lowest thing you have ever done and I have seen you do some pretty despicable things in my time."

"We did talk about it but I couldn't help myself Leni, Stefan went all judgment day on me, drugged me with vervain and locked me in the basement in hopes that my body would desecrate itself enough to turn into a living corpse. I was cranky, weak and not to mention I hadn't fed in days so I couldn't help myself." Damon stated as he drained the rest of his glass and Lena couldn't help but frown, that wasn't a good enough reason to justify killing off another relative but there was nothing Lena could do. What was done was already done and already in the past.

"I suppose not, but then again Stefan must have locked you in the basement for a reason, I don't think you were completely innocent party in all of this. You must be mighty proud of yourself for ending your family's line or are there any more secret Salvatore children out of wedlock that can salvage the Salvatore family?" Lena replied before cursing herself at what she had just said, she had just gone down a dark road in the Salvatore family history. Mentioning something that was supposed to stay in the dark, something that Damon wasn't supposed to know that Lena knew about. A secret about the worst thing that Damon had ever done and what Stefan did to protect somebody very important, which nobody else knew about except for her. Lena took a baited breathe and waited but it seemed like Damon didn't notice the meaning of her underlying comment which was very good. Instead he went about preparing two glasses of scotch and proceeded to hand one over to Lena which she gladly took, it had been a rather long morning and she needed a stiff drink to loosen her up a bit.

"It was just the one, unlike you my family line hasn't managed to survive for the last five hundred years." Damon replied as the two clinked their glass together and Lena forced herself to let out a grim laugh as that wasn't exactly the true. But Damon could never know that, he didn't deserve to know that after what he had done.

"I suppose not anyway my family have nothing to do with this; I'm here to deal with your la famille problems not mine, so how Stefan doing? And whilst we're talking about him, can tell me how on earth your brother managed to fall off the wagon because when I last spoken to Stefan a few months ago he was still feeding on bunnies and generally being the brooding yet happy and optimistic camper that I know him to be…" Lena questioned as Stefan was quite good at remaining 'sober' as she would put it but when he fell off the blood wagon, boy did he fall off pretty hard. How bad it was, Lena was yet to see and it wasn't the damage Stefan had done or the people he had hurt, she was more concerned about how bad this relapse would affect him mentally.

"Yeah… I may have finally gotten round to opening the tomb after a few hiccups, one attempt involved using Emily Bennett possessing her descendent and running thing. You'll find this funny Leni, turns out Katherine was never in there but the other tomb were and they managed to get out and they were pissed to put it lightly. 145 years in a tomb will do that to some and so they kidnapped and tortured Stefan and naturally I went to save him but they did a number on his so his girlfriend fed him her blood and that set everything off." Damon casually said and Lena rolled her eyes as none of this seemed to faze Damon at all but she knew better than to take what he said at face value. Damon had been hung up on Katherine for as long as she had known him, so her not being in the tomb must of stung. A lot. But the two of them would get into that deep emotional stuff later.

"I see you've been very busy recently Damon, anything else that you've neglected to mention that I need to know?" Lena questioned and she watched as Damon took a baited breath. Lena knew what he was doing, inside that twisted little head of Damon's he was debating on what to tell her, so he must have done things that she would not have approved of.

"I'm on the founders council, they all love me and you can't kill anyone whilst you're here. There's a witch whose not my biggest fan at the moment after a small misunderstanding and if you hurt someone and she finds out about you then she'll kill you, she's Emily Bennett's descendent so I wouldn't mess with her. Those Bennett witches really hate vampires…"

"That's good to know, I'll keep that in mind although truth be told I'm not surprised that you've pissed off another witch as that one in Wyoming wanted your head on a stick if I remember correctly." Lena idly commented as she knew there was no way Damon could have come home and not got himself caught up in some kind of trouble. Be it tomb vampires, getting himself on the vampire hating council and pissing off some witch. Lena had to hand it to Damon as he certainly kept life interesting, you could never call Damon boring as he didn't know the meaning of the work boring.

"Ah… Yes, dear old Joanna I rather liked her once you got past freakishly weird mole on her face " Damon said before visibly blanching as he recalled the memory of one of the many antics he and Lena got up during the sixties. It made Lena wonder how on earth the two of them were still alive as they had gotten themselves into some real trouble back in the day.

"Damon, I'm going downstairs to check on Stefan, Oh… I didn't realize that you had company."

A teenage girl with almond skin, brown hair and eyes said as she made her way into the living room or parlour as Damon like to call it. Lena instantly had this weird sense of déjà vu as she knew that face, she had seen a picture of her before, the infamous Katherine Pierce who Lena knew was actually called Katerina Petrova. She was famous, infamous really in the vampire community but rather elusive, many had assumed that Katherine was locked in that tomb but according to Damon not anymore although it did seem like he left some important details out. This did not bode well as Lena knew someone or rather she used to know someone who had some unfinished business with Katerina Petrova…

Lena cocked her head so she could look at Damon. "Anything else you've forgotten to tell me? And this time don't miss anything out Salvatore because you think that I may find them boring and tedious. I came all the way here so the least you could do is tell me everything and preferably with the dash of the truth, other wise I'll grab my bag and leave you here to deal with all the shit load of problems that you called me for help with."

"Did I neglect to mention that Stefan's girlfriend is the exact double of Katherine's and possibly her descendent?" Damon slowly began and Lena let out a rather poorly supressed laugh

"Yeah, you kind of did." Lena slowly replied as she looked the teenager girl over, clearly something was going on here and Dr. Phil would have a field day if he came across any of this. Lena was pretty sure this was what Damon meant when he said she'd want to come to Mystic Falls and now she no longer regretted coming. This was going to be interesting to say the least because this girl wasn't normal. Descendants of a person did not coming out looking like the exact double of that person, Lena would know as she had been keeping an eye on her own family for the last five hundred years. This girl was a Petrova doppelgänger.

"Elena Gilbert this is Evangeline Valcourt, the old friend of mine I told you about whose come to help out with our little Stefan problem and Leni this is Elena Gilbert, Stefan's girlfriend the one who I mentioned in passing." Damon said making introductions and Lena offered a small smile as she had wondered into the last possible thing she wanted to get involve in. These doppelgangers popped up every so often and trouble seemed to always follow them from what Lena had heard, especially in the case of Katerina Petrova.

"Call me Lena, nobody with half a brain has the sense to call me Evangeline anymore!"

"It's nice to meet you Lena, you're the nun right?" Elena questioned, although the second part she said more wearily as it was clear she was taking in Lena's appearance. The blazer, crumpled Aerosmith t-shirt, jeans and the insanely high heels were probably not giving off the best first impression especially the bed hair, when being mistaken for a nun. Lena couldn't help but snort in amusement before turning her attention over to Damon as she knew he had to be the one responsible for this whole nun thing.

"Typical Damon… I can't believe he told you I was a nun, well then again I'm not too surprised as this is Damon we're talking about and he's kind of obsessed with it seeing as I was disguised as a nun the first time we met in 1938. But in all serious I'm not a nun, the closet thing I get to being religious is when I go to church to eavesdrop on confession. Can't blame him though, I rocked his world that night and have been ever since." Lena said with a wicked smile, which caused Damon to scoff.

"You wish Leni!"

"Why would I? We both know it's the truth, some of us are just in denial over this little fact." Lena teased in a knowing manner, whilst Damon had never been in love with her given his obsession with Katherine, there was a time that he had been infatuated with her. Although Damon liked to pretend otherwise for the sake of his male pride.

"A-are you two involved?" Elena questioned and both Damon and Lena looked at her before bursting out laughing in amusement.

"Involved? That would not be the word that I would use… More like intimately acquainted with each other if I had to describe Damon and I. We used to hook up over the years but it was just a casual thing as he was still in love with Katherine and I have my own issues not to mention he's a bit of baby vampire and I didn't have time to be holding his hand, wiping his nose and teaching him the basics of our way of life. So we decided that we were better as friends and so here we are." Lena admitted as her past with Damon was pretty much an open book as she had nothing to hide, and Damon just rolled his eyes. "But that's not important, all that matters is that I'm here now and I'm going to fix everything so take me to Monsieur Stefan, I have missed him so very much!""

"As you wish Leni…"

There was a part of Lena that thought that Damon was joking when he said that Stefan was locked up in the basement for everyone's safety while they tried to detox him off human blood. As Damon wasn't exactly Mr. Serious but apparently this time he was being serious, probably for one of the few times in his life and now Lena stood in the basement of the boarding house with Damon and Elena. Taking a couple of steps forward Lena looked through the bars on the door and into Stefan's cell. It wasn't the nicest place in the world but it would do for now and as Lena looked into the cell she noticed Stefan in the corner and judging by his breathing pattern it appeared that he was sleeping but he sleep seemed very disturbed as he was thrashing about, probably down to the whole going cold turkey off human blood thing. No doubt this whole ordeal was very unpleasant for him, which made Lena glad that Damon had the sense to call her in instead of tackling this himself. Although Lena had never done this before, she had previous dealings with rippers over the centuries but none of them had been like Stefan and none of them had needed help with dealing with their problem or even want to change. Lena was a bit at a loss of what to do but she was certain that she could do this, Stefan needed a strong and firm, yet gentle hand when it came to dealing with his little problem and Damon wasn't exactly the best person to help him in this situation, given how Damon spent most of his time trying to get his baby brother to give up animal blood and start being a proper vampire, not to mention Damon was the least sympathetic person you could ever come across. Damon was no doubt more upset over the inconvenience Stefan's little problem was causing him than the fact his problem had fallen off the wagon. But that didn't really matter, despite his faults Lena knew that Damon cared for Stefan otherwise she wouldn't be here. If you called him out on it Damon would probably deny it but for Lena actions spoke a whole lot louder than words.

"I'm going to need you to open the door for me Damon, whilst I respect the fact that you put Stefan in here so he wouldn't try to harm anyone else I am not going to talk to him through these bars like he's some animal at the zoo and here for my own entertainment. I want to be able to sit down with Stefan when I talk to him." Lena instructed as just because Stefan happened to be a ripper, it didn't mean that he had to be treated with any less respect. This was not the way to be helping him, locking Stefan up because of what happened wasn't going to fix him or his problem with blood. They needed to deal with this problem face on as locking Stefan up in here for a couple of weeks was only going to get him off the blood, it wasn't going to stop him from going on a bender once he was let out.

"Lena, I don't think that's a good idea given the whole 'withdrawal' Stefan may be pretty volatile, so it's probably if you stay out here." Elena explained and Lena allowed herself to laugh at this, it was nice that Elena was worrying about her safety but there was no need. Stefan wouldn't hurt her. Even if he tried to Lena wasn't afraid to put him down for a couple of hours for his own good.

"What's he going to do? Jump me? I appreciate the concern Elena but I am five hundred and eighty two years old whilst Stefan is one hundred and sixty two. I have just over four hundred years on him and with age comes strength when it comes to being a vampire. Even with all that human blood Stefan has been drinking, I'll be perfectly fine given the way I live my life and my diet. But thank you nonetheless." Lena said in a warm manner before turning to Damon and motioning for him to open the door to the cell and with a bemused roll of his eyes Damon ignored the look of disapproval from Elena and opened the cell door as he did, Stefan started to stir.

"As you wish Leni…"

"I need you to leave and Damon and do I need to explain to you yet again that when I say this I mean you needed to be far away from this house? I want you out of eavesdropping range so why don't you go get me something to eat, perhaps something greasy. I must have had something funny last night…" Lena quipped.

"You owe me for this Leni." Damon began and Lena couldn't help but laugh as she pushed a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear as that was a funny thing for Damon to say.

"Me? I owe you for this? That's funny Damon as you're the one who called me and asked me to come all this way to help Stefan. Not to mention you owe me for plenty of other things that I have done for you over the years which I won't bring up as we have company with us and one of them is too young to be hearing of such wicked things but nice try Damon. Now au revoir… " Lena said with a bright smile shooing away Damon and Elena away, once the two of them had left Lena stood in the spot where she standing for a few minutes before proceeding to walk into the cell and look at Stefan's sleeping form. "You can stop pretending to be asleep now, as we both know that you're very much awake Stefan Salvatore. Don't worry, Damon and Elena are very much gone. It's just us now…"

Slowly Stefan sat from the small bed in the cell and looked at Lena with tired eyes, in the however many years that Lena had known him she had never seen Stefan look so much older than his years. This was not a man who was a 162 years old but in the body of a seventeen year old body. His green eyes looked weary and all too familiar to her and just looking into them made Lena's heart ache. Stefan was such a good person and he didn't deserves have to be struggling with something like this everyday. "Hello Leni…"

"Bonjour Stefan, it's been a while hasn't it old friend? I guess I'm to blame for that given how unpredictable I tend to be with my visits but never mind that's in the past. As ever it is very good to see you mon ami!" Lena quipped from the doorway in an attempt to keep the mood rather light and somewhat upbeat.

"You didn't just stop by for a visit, did you? I know you hate small towns with every fibre of that French passion of yours so what did Damon say to you Leni to get you to come back to Mystic Falls?" Stefan questioned and Lena offered him a small smile as she walked in further to the cell and proceeded to sit down next to Stefan. Despite the door to the cell was left open, there was no way Stefan was getting out of here as he would have to get past her and that wasn't happening anytime soon.

"You are correct Stefan, I do very much hate small towns and I did not just drop by unexpectedly. Damon called me in the very early hours of this morning and he told me what happened and asked if I would come down to help and several hours later here I am. My bags are upstairs, your brother has updated me with most of what has been going on in this freaky little town of yours and I've stored away my champagne for a later day. But right now I am all yours Stefan, so let's start talking about why the two of us are down here." Lena prompted with a small nudge, giving Stefan a reassuring smile as she needed Stefan to know that it was okay and that she wasn't here to judge him.

"There's nothing to explain Leni, you know that I lost control again and I almost killed someone. An innocent girl who did nothing wrong but being at the wrong place at the wrong time. I have been fighting this for so long but it's not working, I'm becoming the thing that I feared worse; the true monster inside of me." Stefan wearily stated and Lena sighed, this was typical Stefan behaviour as whilst Damon had no sense of real remorse most of the time his brother on the other hand did. Stefan was always plagued by the things he had done ever since he had become a vampire. It often made him think the worst of himself.

"You are not a monster Stefan, that's just the guilt talking."

"Really? Then what about what happened in Mexico? Before we even met Leni, you knew me by my reputation, by what I had done in Monterrey. How can you seriously tell me that I'm not a monster after what I did there? What I did everywhere else before Lexi came and found me and fixed me again and again." Stefan questioned and for a moment Lena didn't know what to say as Stefan was right. Few vampires knew of Stefan by name but rather by legacy or his vast killings back in the early 20th century. His darkest days as Lena liked to refer to that time period in his life as.

"Is that what you want me to say Stefan? That you're a hideous monster who only causes destruction wherever he goes? That he deserves to be locked away in a cell like this because he can't be controlled? I could say that to you but what difference would it make for me to say that when I know it's not true. Right now, right in front of me I don't see a monster but rather I see a man. The most beautiful man I have ever known, a man whose kindness and compassion knows no bounds but has his struggles. Yes you have done some bad things and yes I did know of the infamous ripper of Monterrey but back then I didn't know the man behind it at the time, however I do now. They may share the same body but they are very two different people." Lena told Stefan in a firm manner before taking a moment to pause before continuing. "There's light and darkness in all of us Stefan and we can be swayed to either side but we can make the final choice and we can fight for that choice and that is what all of this is about. This is you fighting to be the person you want to be. The person I know you to be. I know you Stefan Salvatore and I know your heart and you are a good man, the best man I have ever know and I say that knowing who you are and what you have done. So you will listen to me when I saw I will do whatever I can to help you, getting you back on the 'wagon' as we call it may not be easy but they said third time's the charm."

"No."

Lena laughed as she hadn't been expecting to hear that. "No? Would you care to explain?"

"There's nothing anyone can do Leni, no matter how hard I try I can't control it and then I do something like this, I'm a bad person and people die around me at my hand…"

"Stefan you may have done some terrible things in your time and no one is denying that but that does not make you a bad person? No it doesn't. It makes you human or as human as vampires get. We weren't born like this, all of this happened after we became vampires and yes we hold some responsibility for it but we have to remember that the vampirism is what made us into predators in the first place. It changes our physiology, our mentality… Everyone does something terrible at one point in their life. No on is perfect… Take me for example, I killed my husband's mistress by draining every single drop of blood from her body, then proceeding to cut her heart out and leave it on my husband's desk."

"You've told me this before Leni…" Stefan said and Lena patted Stefan's leg, she had told this story to Stefan many times before but he needed to hear it again. Stefan needed to be reminded that it was okay to make a mistake at times and regret it but not let it dictate your life. You had to learn from them and move on, no matter how much things hurt.

"I know I have and it was a terrible thing for me to do because that woman Marie, could have been there for my family and filled the whole in their heart from my 'death' but I killed her because I was angry about the fact my husband had been cheating on me. It is one of the worst things I have ever done and since then I haven't exactly been a saint… Anyway my point is that will all do bad stuff, some more than others but what makes you different from most Stefan is that you care. Despite being a ripper, you care and show so much remorse for what you have done that stops you being a monster. You have a heart, the sweetest and most gentle heart I know and there is no way you could be a monster with a heart like that. I will admit that I couldn't believe that you were the ripper of Monterrey when I first met you because, you were the kindest man that I have ever come across in all my years. That is the man I know you to be Stefan Salvatore. You are not a monster, you will never be a monster to me."

"Leni–" Stefan began.

"Try again. Fail again. Fail better." Lena interrupted, before Stefan could write himself off.

"Are you quoting Samuel Beckett to me?" Stefan wearily laughed, Lena nodded and gave Stefan a bright smile as it was nice to see some sort of positive emotion on him.

"It seems rather appropriate in our situation, but my point is Stefan you never stop trying to control your blood thirst. Yes, you fell of the wagon but you haven't fallen as hard as you have before. You're getting there Stefan, slowly but surely and if it takes another thirty years of you falling on and off the wagon for you to kick it completely then so be it, I'll stay with you for as long as it takes. I'll be here for you as long as it takes." Lena assured Stefan as she felt that it was important for Stefan to know that he wasn't alone. Whilst Lena wasn't a ripper, she had some experience with them and she cared about Stefan, she could see that this was tearing him up and she wanted to help him. Since her immediate family had passed away a long time ago, Stefan and Damon were the closest thing she had to family.

"Leni… I know you and I know that you don't like staying in the same place for too long, especially small towns. In fact you've made it a rule never to stay in the same place for more than five years and move on you don't come back for at least another sixty years." Stefan stated and Lena bit her lip as that was very much true. Small towns and herself didn't go well together and that dated back to a time where she spent a lot of time with one of the oldest vampires in existence, a man who was mad, bad and dangerous to know and at one point was the love of Evangeline Valcourt's life.

"But this time I have a real reason to stay."


	3. Chapter 3

It wasn't often that Lena had the chance to think about how lonely being a vampire was, for the most of the time she was preoccupied with whatever was going on in her daily life. She actively tried to keep as busy life, in order to keep herself distracted from missing the ones that she had cared about most in the world but there were time sin the morning, when the morning sun was lonely that Lena was given a chance to reflect on all those that she missed daily in their life and wonder what had become of them. Sometimes those days would make her realise how lonely it was to be a vampire, being forced to watch everyone around her age whilst she was stuck in the body of a young woman who would be forever 23 years old. No matter what Lena could do, she would always been the same person she had been for the last several hundred years and there was only a few people in this world who would understand that and the Salvatore brothers were two of those fortunate people who Lena allowed into her life. The two of them were the closest thing that Lena had to a family ever since she had lost her own. Lena didn't realize how much she had missed her friends until she was sitting in that cell with Stefan talking about everything that had happened, like Lexi's death and the whole Katherine tomb issue. It made Lena glad that Damon had called her when he did as it seemed like he hadn't called her a moment too soon. Although Lena did wish that Damon had called before when all of this was kicking off because she could have helped put a stop to this before it even got started. After talking with Stefan for a further forty minutes, Lena decided it was time to give him some space and let him think about what they had spoken of, so she left the basement and with a heavy heart she shut him back into his cell. For now this was the safest place for Stefan to be, until the worst part of him going cold turkey was over. It wasn't going to be pretty but if it helped Stefan then it would be worth it. Until that day had come, Lena was sitting in the living room of the boarding house cradling a large glass of scotch, she honestly couldn't remember whether this was her forth or fifth one of the day. There's was just something about being around Damon for a certain amount of time that led her to the bottle. The two of them drank alcohol like it was water and Lena was pretty sure that they came as close to functioning alcoholics as two vampires could get. It was one of the few upsides of her staying in Mystic Falls, not only would she get to spend time with her two favourite brothers but Damon was never short of alcohol. It was a silver linging to this rather unfortunate series of events.

"How's Stefan doing?" Lena asked not glancing up from her glass as she heard footsteps heading towards the living room after coming up from the basement. They were too heavy to be Damon's so that only left Elena. The glaring double for Katherine was undeniable and whilst she had never had the pleasure of meeting in the infamous Katherine Pierce, Lena had head a lot about her and the fact that she had a double in Elena Gilbert who was dating her former lover very much intrigued Lena. But there was also the dark secret about Katherine and Elena's resemblance that Lena needed to keep quiet, she saw no point in telling Damon, Stefan or even Elena about it because they only needed to worry about that if a certain person from Lena's past found out about Elena's existence.

"I don't know, I know that this is really tough on Stefan and he's struggling with it and that's about it. I have no real idea of what he's going through, I can only really imagine…" Elena said with a sigh and Lena smiled, it was nice that Elena was worrying about Stefan and wasn't naïve about this whole thing and admitted that she had no idea what Stefan was going through.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much Elena as Stefan has gone through this a couple of times and trust me, whilst it doesn't seem like it at the moment. It does gets easier each time he gets back on the wagon. Now you should have a reasonable amount of worry when it comes to that blood thirst of his but it's the crippling guilt that you've really got to watch out for with Stefan. That is going to be the thing that could push him over the edge one day perhaps even kill him if I know Stefan like I think I do." Lena stated before taking a sip of her drink, the alcohol burned at her throat but that did nothing to prevent Lena from continuing to drink. Sometimes it was this pain that remind her that she was alive.

"The guilt?" Elena questioned as made her way over and joined Lena on the couch that she was sitting on and Lena nodded her head, she figured she was going to have to give Elena the 101 on guilt as a vampire. It wasn't a story for the fainthearted but Lena was certain that the young woman would be able to handle it, if she could deal with dating a vampire, than she could deal with anything.

"Here's the deal Elena, when a person becomes a vampire our emotions along with everything else become heightened. Love, happiness and joy becomes 10x more intensified then it was before back when we were humans as becoming a vampire allows you to live more intensely. Our emotions are basically at their peak regardless of how old we are when we transitioned. But the good comes with the bad, such as anger, depression, sadness are all amplified along with guilt which can be pretty bad. Which is why a lot of vampires turn off their emotions, it makes it a lot easier to live without fear and remorse over some of our actions. But back to the guilt thing Elena, for someone like Stefan who had such a strong moral compass before he transitioned, the guilt over his actions when he's back on 'the wagon' is pretty much self destructive. It's like grief in a manner of speaking, it can completely overwhelm you and never really go away, no matter what you do." Lena said, trying to explain the whole vampire emotion process in a way that Elena would be able to understand.

"You sound like you know what Stefan is going through from experience Lena." Elena noted and Lena let out a soft laugh.

"Sort of. Only once during my five hundred and thirty nine years of being a vampire have I turned off my emotions. I don't tend to do it because for me turning off our emotions just makes us as dead as our bodies are. I live with the good and the bad of being a vampire and despite how intense our emotions can be, it reminds me that I am alive when I should be dead. Trust me when I say it's hard to find a balance but Stefan has to find some way with living with the guilt because if this is what he's like at a hundred and forty five years of a vampire, then he won't make it to my age… I've done some terrible things in my time but I have one thing that keeps me sane."

"And what is that?"

"Love. It's the most important thing a person could have in their life, there are some vampires who believe that love is the weakest thing that our kind can feel. But not me, I will always believe in love. It's perhaps the most powerful of all emotions that we can feel and for myself, it's my ever reason for still being here." Lena said as she slid off the silver bracelet that always sat on her left wrist. They were commonly known as mother bracelets and Lena wore one, which looked like they were three individual bracelets but were in fact only one which had been linked together. Looking at the bracelet for a moment Lena handed it over to Elena. "Not to mention this, it will always give me the strength to go on no matter bad I sometimes feel and trust me being able to live forvever, isn't always what it's cracked up to be, no matter what Damon will tell you."

Elena took the bracelet and carefully looked it over. "Are these the people you've killed?"

"Oh now! I'm afraid that I've killed more than people than that Elena, I don't think that I could even provide you with an accurate number. The three names on this bracelet are so much more memorable to me, they are the names of my children and I wear this bracelet to remind me of them. Although there's no way on earth I'd ever forget them, no matter how much time has passed. I carry there name with me, so that a part of them will always be with me no matter what…" Lena wistfully commented, a small lump appearing in her throat as she broached the subject of what had mattered most to her in this world.

"Lena you had children?" Elena asked and watched as Lena's eyes softened before she nodded with a wide grin on her face.

"Yes I did, I had three wonderful children who were everything to me and more, without a doubt they were the centre of my entire world and they still are if you can imagine that. I had two wonderful sons; Leopold and Emile and then a precious daughter; Odette who was a delight to myself. Each one of them as beautiful and lovely as the next, I can honestly say that they were my greatest achievements. Nothing else that I have done in my life can even compare to having my dear children. If I were die tomorrow then I would die happy as the best thing that ever happened to me was becoming a mother. Nothing has ever brought me such great joy… "

"B-but you're so young…" Elena stammered in shock over the recent news and Lena couldn't help but laugh, it was hard to believe that she was or had indeed been a mother given the things she had gotten up to in her life. But then again she was young and had been around for over half a millennium although she did like your everyday twenty three year old.

"It was the fifteenth century Elena, things were very different then to how they are now. I was married just after I turned sixteen and I fell pregnant about a month later. Leopold was born two months before I turned seventeen, then I was nineteen when I gave birth to Emile and twenty when Odette finally arrived."

"Wow… That is just amazing, what were they like?" Elena asked and Lena beamed, there was nothing more that she loved then taking about her children who were without a doubt the three great loves of her life.

"My eldest Leopold was a lot like me in a manner of speaking, always so sure of himself and ready for anything just radiating in happiness and confidence. He had these adorable dark blonde curls and these intense hazel eyes. Then Emile took more after his father than he did me, with his brown hair and strong features but he did have my hazel eyes, all my children had my eyes and I used to joke that because of that they saw the world through my eyes and I saw the world through theirs. My little one was so sweet and gentle, but so funny with a laugh that was infectious and then there was my sweet Odette, she was the most beautiful little girl I had ever seen with her blonde hair and such soft yet gentle eyes. Odette was so shy yet as curious as a kitten, always wanting to play with her brothers. They were all wonderful and it was easy to love them but then again I was their mother." Lena stated with a small chuckle, talking about her children so freely reminded her of how much she missed them. Her heart always ached for them when she spoke about them but Lena knew that reminiscing about them, even after all this time still kept them alive for her.

"But you became a vampire–" Elena slowly began as her eyes widened in horror, as she realized what had inevitably happened.

"And left my children, yes I know. It was not something that I chose, it just happened to me one night and I've been pretty much like this since. My children were so young when this happened, too young to ever really understand losing their mother. I was twenty three when it happened and Leopold was six, Emile was four and my little Odette was just three. If I had the choice, than I would not have left them but I could not bare to not complete my transition and be in the dark in regards of what happened to my three children. I had to make sure that they would be okay, that they would continue to thrive despite me no longer being present on their lives, so I completed my transition and was forced to watch them live without me from a distance."

"It must have killed you to have to leave them." Elena noted and Lena grimly nodded, that was pretty much an understatement

"Hence the guilt I carry around with me everyday, I have killed people and I won't deny that but the worst thing I have ever done in my life is abandon my children. But I had to do it Elena. I could not be around them because of what I was, it was too dangerous for them so I had to leave. I had to let them go in order for them to live a life without me, a safe and happy life… The life I always wanted for them even if I couldn't be there and hug them and tell them how much I loved them and be a part of their lives like I should have been I left them knowing that they were in good hands. It broke my heart to do so, however I kept a far eye on them and so I got see them grow up for the most part, so the guilt about me doesn't cripple me like it used to. But then losing them almost destroyed me, it was that one time in my life that I turned my emotions off as they all died within eighteen months of each other. They had all lived happy and long lives but they were still my children, so I turned my emotions off for about ten years." Lena revealed with a weak smile.

"Lena…"

"I don't know how because they were very young when I died but my children seemed to remember me. I think my husband Lucien told them all about me despite everything that happened between us, wanting them to grow up knowing about their mother and knowing that I loved them more than anything in this world. My daughter Odette named her youngest daughter after me and my great granddaughter by Leopold was named after me." Lena noted with a heartfelt sigh, knowing that she was still able to live on through her children had somehow manged to make this whole vampire thing bearable.

"Your husband? What happened between you and him?" Elena questioned.

"Oh… Lucien? Well that is interesting because as much of a good father as he was, it was a shame I couldn't same the same about being a husband. Don't get me wrong he never hurt me physically but he started an affair the last few months of my life and I found out about it whilst I was transitioning. Given everything and my heightened emotions, I was so mad about it that I hunted down his mistress and drank her blood dry to complete my transition and then I ripped her heart out and left it on my husband's desk… No sense in killing him as my children had just lost their mother, they needed their father and I would not deny my children that. If I could not be with them, then they would at least have one parent with them." Lena wirily commented as she downed the contents of her drink.

"Wow, that must have been–"

"Bloody, yes… But that wasn't my point." Lena interrupted as Elena handed back the bracelets and Lena slipped them back on to her left wrist there they belonged. She always made sure that she was wearing them everyday, for Lena it was like a part of her heart and soul were in these bracelets and she could not live without them. "My point was that having someone or something to love helps lessen the pain of the guilt. I have the memory of my children and their children and so on to sustain me but Stefan needs you and dare I say it Damon. The two people whom he loves most in this world and whom he would do anything for. You love him a fraction of what he feels for you and I assure you he'll be fine."

"How do you know that Lena?" Elena questioned and Lena quietly chuckled herself, humans were so naïve and cute especially when they were confused.

"Elena, you'll come to find out that I'm always right, even when I'm wrong I'm right."


End file.
